Winning an Oscar gives an artist sixty seconds to make a political statement in the international spotlight. Last Sunday was such an evening, with calls for racial equality, pay parity for women, raised awareness for Alzheimer's, and one young man's riveting and emotional call to help end teen suicides.

Screenwriter Graham Moore captured the hearts of the Academy during his acceptance speech for penning the Best Adapted Screenplay for the film 'The Imitation Game'. He used his moment to address young men and women who feel isolated and alone, who feel like they are outsiders. He told them they all would eventually be okay. It was his self-generated version of an "It Gets Better" speech, and it hit a home run at the Oscars.

Moore began in a brutally honest way, saying he attempted suicide when he was 16 because he felt 'weird' and 'different,' adding 'I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she's weird or she's different or she doesn't fit in anywhere.'

To a standing ovation, he concluded with inspirational words. "Yes, you do. I promise you do. Stay weird, stay different." Someday, he said, that same outcast would have a stage of their own.

The LGBT community was once an outcast, even in Hollywood. Many in the audience related well to his talk.

In the media crush that followed, Moore, 34, told interviewers that he has lived with 'depression' almost every day of his life. The young man, who attended the awards ceremony with his mother, then postured that he is "not gay, just different."

Moore, who grew up in a very middle class environment as the son of divorced Chicago lawyers told Access Hollywood he was obsessed with the story of Alan Turing "ever since he was a teenager." But he is not gay, he said. Okay, then.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2015/02/the_imitation_game_writer_mirrors_real_life.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2015/02/the_imitation_game_writer_mirrors_real_life.phpEntertainmentSat, 28 Feb 2015 13:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2015/02/the_imitation_game_writer_mirrors_real_life.php#commentsJuror's Verdict Is for Marriage Equality
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]]>I have never seen so many people this happy in a jury room, but that is where close to 100 same-sex couples and 300 people gathered at midnight on Tuesday, January 6, in the Broward County Courthouse. We were not alone. Across the state, at varying hours of the day, clerks were issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

You can't appreciate where you are in life without remembering where you have been: Florida is the state that gave birth to Anita Bryant in 1977. Florida is the state that voted to ban same-sex marriage less than ten years ago. Florida is a state where both the governor and the attorney general still oppose us, and went to court to stop us less than ten days ago.

This time, equality and justice were on our side.

There are groups still opposing us, with names like the Florida Family Council. Watching their spokespersons make their case on TV, you almost have to scoff. They have become so historically irrelevant they are laughable. Even Jeb Bush, as he prepares for a presidential run, is changing his tune. He is smart enough to know his past opposition to same-sex couples is a shackle to his future goals.

However, Florida still has a ways to go, doesn't it? Clerks in Duval, Clay, Baker and other counties have stopped performing courthouse weddings, all citing conservative values and opposition to marriage equality as part of the reason why. The only way clerks could avoid officiating same-sex wedding ceremonies is if they stop performing courthouse weddings all together.

While those clerks may seem far away even right here in Fort Lauderdale, our own Mayor, Jack Seiler, opposed the city's resolution supporting marriage equality just a few months ago. We must be ever vigilant.

It's so sad. It is 2015. They are living in a Sadie Hawkins world still celebrating Anita Bryant Day. That is too bad for them, but worse for their kids. Someday they will get over it. Someday we shall overcome. But that means we still have work to do.

We know how many of our friends used cannabis to offset the wasting syndrome of AIDS. When we turn out to vote in states conducting medical marijuana initiatives, we vote overwhelmingly to make cannabis available to patients.

Florida recently conducted a statewide medical initiative which needed 60 per cent to become law. It drew 'only' 58 percent of the vote, but not in LGBT hotbeds.

Key West voters supported cannabis with 72% of the vote. In Wilton Manors, a suburb adjacent to Fort Lauderdale -- which has one of the highest percentage of same-sex couples in the nation -- voters also supported medicalizing pot with over 70% of the vote.

Nevertheless, straight or gay, here is my message to all of you cannabis consumers: Hang on. Wait. Medical marijuana is not yet legal everywhere. Yes, in 24 states it is, but the last time I looked America still has 50. We have a way to go, and the LGBT community can lead the way.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/11/supreme_court_muddies_mends_the_waters.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/11/supreme_court_muddies_mends_the_waters.phpPoliticsSat, 01 Nov 2014 13:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/11/supreme_court_muddies_mends_the_waters.php#commentsSouthern Comfort Conference to Move to Ft. Lauderdale
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]]>The Southern Comfort Conference is a major transgender conference that has taken place annually since 1991. It features seminars, events, speeches by prominent people in the LGBT community, numerous vendors catering to transgender and transsexual people. Wikipedia references the event as the largest and preeminent such conference in the United States.

At the Riverside Hotel on Monday morning, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention Visitors Bureau announced that this prestigious event is coming to a Fort Lauderdale next year. Moving from Atlanta after 24 years, the transition is attributable to the CVB's managing director, Richard Gray, who commissioned a study on the economic impact and value of transgender tourism.

From an editorial standpoint, the initiative lends further stature to South Florida as a progressive and inclusive community, legions apart from the perception most people have of Florida itself. After all, we are a state still fighting same-sex marriage; it's charge led by the state's attorney general, Pam Bondi. Even Fort Lauderdale's own mayor, Jack Seiler, opposes us.

Nevertheless, the SCC has cultivated a reputation as a safe place for the LGBT transgender community. It attracts people from all over the United States, offering the opportunity for social interactions, promoting health exams, and spiriting in new levels of understanding. The Community Marketing Initiative, offering insights into the LGBT community, claims that the CVB should be lauded for its pioneering efforts, which will yield economic benefits to all of South Florida.

More than just the dollars, we should be thinking about the dignity a conference likes this offers the transgender community. It opens doors and breaks down walls. Even within the gay community, there can still be a condescending attitude towards the T's in LGBT. And that is unacceptable, with a capital 'U.'

Gay couples demanding to get married is totally inconsistent with what I originally thought being gay was all about. Whatever happened to hedonistic nights at the Copa or on Fire Island, waking up stoned and hung over with someone you did not know the night before -- and whose name you still did not know the morning after?

Gay life was supposed to be an expression of independence, free from conformity and social norms. Gay life was sneaking yourself away from straight friends to conduct a late-night rendezvous on the side of a mountain in Laguna Beach. We weren't supposed to be having wedding ceremonies there. When the hell did we become normal?

Gay life was supposed to be a political struggle so you could go to gay bookstores and spend 25 cents to watch twelve-minute eight-millimeter porn films in tiny booths without being harassed by the police. When the hell did we ever start running gay and lesbian film festivals that get sponsored by Wells Fargo?

Gay life was having a college gay-rights group form and be allowed to exist on a campus, demanding equal access to student affairs budgets or committee rooms. When did we start becoming student council presidents or electing transgender people as prom queens? Weren't they supposed to be getting electroshock therapy to make them 'normal'? Or was that us too?

Gay life was forming groups like GUARD (Gays United Against Repression and Discrimination), fighting off police brutality and legal intolerance. How did we suddenly become mayors, issuing proclamations for Pride South Florida?

Thanks to a technological communications revolution, the world is a much smaller place. We witness Iraqi executions on cell phones, and the Internet takes us across the globe in seconds. What happens a continent away is on our laptop seconds later. We can't look the other way and play pretend.

There are places where the gay community still needs to be heard. One of those is at East 42nd Street on First Avenue in New York City, by the East River. It is called the United Nations Plaza.

As a representative of the nation's gay press, the South Florida Gay News today condemns and censures the United Nations for permitting Uganda's Sam Kutesa to be selected as the new head of the UN General Assembly. We call upon other LGBT newspapers to join us. The choice is a disgrace, a damn, shocking, shame.

Given that 81 countries on this globe still outlaw homosexuality, it's easy to see why being Ugandan would not automatically disqualify him from such a prestigious post. Still, given that the head of the General Assembly represents all countries, it's a position that the LGBT community should care enough about to speak out and be heard.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/07/stand_up_and_be_counted.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/07/stand_up_and_be_counted.phpPoliticsTue, 08 Jul 2014 16:30:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/07/stand_up_and_be_counted.php#commentsHarvey Milk & Me: From Woodmere to the White House
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]]>Today I will be at a White House ceremony where our nation will release a United States postage stamp honoring Harvey Milk, a gay man who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, when he spectacularly won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Harvey's tenure in office was short, assassinated in November of 1978, by a crazed colleague only eleven months into his term. I know, it's a long time ago, but his life has been memorialized in a moving documentary, and then captured again in the award winning film, "Milk," so amazingly played by Sean Penn.

For me, Harvey's life was more than a movie. In no small measure, Harvey's life touched my own. I grew up and went to high school in Woodmere, Long Island, New York. That's where Harvey was from. He taught at Hewlett High School, but left for the west coast in the early 1970's.

It was 1976 when I left New York and moved temporarily to South Florida. I never thought I would stay here. Except for the weather, I really hated this place. There was no sense of community or purpose. In 1977, I left for California, staying in San Diego, Venice, LA, and San Francisco, trying to find a comfort zone on the West Coast.

It was in San Francisco in 1977 that I met Dennis Peron, an openly gay man, also from Long Island. Not surprisingly, Peron was a prominent cannabis activist, and I met him through NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Peron was a little older than me but he showed me the Castro, openly gay life, and we hit it off and hung out at his Island Restaurant. Active in politics and the soul of the community, Peron introduced me to this fiery candidate for city hall -- Harvey Milk.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/harvey_milk_me_from_woodmere_to_the_white_house.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/harvey_milk_me_from_woodmere_to_the_white_house.phpLivingThu, 22 May 2014 12:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/harvey_milk_me_from_woodmere_to_the_white_house.php#commentsMichael Sam: Let Him Play
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]]>This is not an editorial about sports, though it is about a football player.

With the 249th selection of the 2014 NFL Draft, the St. Louis Rams chose a defensive end from the University of Missouri, Michael Sam, the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

He made history. Now let him play football.

First, they selected the first openly gay college athlete to enter the NFL draft. We know there have been many other gay players long before Michael Sam. Rightly or wrongly, none ever made their sexuality an issue. Sam did, and it cost him big time.

Instead of being a logical fourth- or fifth-round selection, Sam almost did not get picked at all. He was rescued by St. Louis with 7 picks left on the board. It was agonizing to watch team after team, including the Dolphins, go down on the draft board to choose other lesser-rated players at the same position.

All of those teams, from Denver to the Jets to the 'Fins, had made politically correct front office pronouncements that they would not let Sam's open sexuality interfere with their selection process. Lies. They all did.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/michael_sam_let_him_play.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/michael_sam_let_him_play.phpLivingSun, 18 May 2014 09:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/michael_sam_let_him_play.php#commentsBe Who You Are
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]]>The celebration of gay pride in South Florida last month was testimony to the fortunes of our community. More than just a parade of floats, we witnessed a measure of our moment in history.

LGBT life in South Florida is celebrated by seniors who have been coupled for decades and young people just coming out of the closet. Both emerge in the sunlight, not from the shadows. As social acceptance of sexuality becomes the norm, fears of being gay are now abnormal.

It was not always so.

In decades past, men and women with gay histories were closeted. We know the stories of those who came out at great personal risk, of people who paid the ultimate price. One of those was Harvey Milk, a true American hero and champion of civil rights for all people.

Next month, on Milk's birthday, the United States will issue a commemorative stamp in his honor. Assassinated by a political foe, the bullets of that false revenge did not tame time or history. From high schools named after him, to the foundation that honors him, Harvey Milk's life is still celebrated.

In February, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force celebrated its annual hedonistic romp on South Beach. Gay Days in Orlando will be a tribute to equality for Disney and Mickey. The White Party sometimes has a dual meaning.

Yes, the gay community knows how to throw a party. Still, we have a duty to raise the bar. The gay community in 2014 has taken on a new meaning. We make news not in bathrooms but in executive boardrooms.

You matter. You can make a difference. Many of you wonder how. There are many ways and multiple moments that fall your way.

I have been telling people I am gay for the past 30 years and I can't even get a date on Grindr. But I do remember what it was like being a gay athlete in the homophobic world of very straight locker rooms. It was not pretty. Any sign of weakness made you a 'faggot', a 'fairy,' and a 'fudge-packer.'

Even today, coming out in pro sports is a bit of an uphill adventure. The NFL bullying scandal last season documented just how much mindlessness and brutality still invades the pro locker room. It reflects the mentality of many players. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

Meanwhile, with the NFL draft just around the corner, Michael Sam is set to become the first openly gay player in the NFL. Understandably though, he wants reporters to ask him more about who he tackles on the field than in bedrooms. We, the gay community, want respect as professionals in the daytime, not as scorers in the nighttime.

Of course, Michael Sam will not be the first gay pro football player. Dave Kopay has written a book about his life as a gay man who played pro football. He was with Outsports.com editor Cyd Ziegler last month for Sam's announcement. So was Wade Davis, who wrote a column in Sports Illustrated praising Sam; Davis came out after his career ended, explaining that homophobia kept him in the closet.

ESPN also recently featured Jerry Smith's history as a gay Washington Redskins tight end in the 1970's. Smith died of AIDS in 1986, and his uniform has become part of the AIDS quilt, but he never publicly acknowledged he was gay. Head coach Vince Lombardi, who had a gay brother, demanded a homophobia-free locker room but not even the legendary Lombardi could insulate him from the mentality of the era.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/03/michael_sam_tackles_nfl_homophobia_by_coming_out.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/03/michael_sam_tackles_nfl_homophobia_by_coming_out.phpLivingWed, 12 Mar 2014 15:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/03/michael_sam_tackles_nfl_homophobia_by_coming_out.php#commentsYour Penis is Showing
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]]>There are more than a million men on Grindr in the United States. Did you ever think about what happens to the things you say and the pictures you share?

It doesn't just have to be Grindr. There are a host of popular gay social apps, including -- to the best of my recollection -- Hornet, Scruff, Growl, Jack'd, Manhunt, Adam4Adam, VGL, Mister, and Daddyhunt, to name a few. There are probably a host of others, as well, all owned and operated by private individuals or for profit corporations.

Have you ever stopped to think about what is going on with those pictures of your penis that you privately shared with the stud you just felt you had to meet? Wondering about the intimate communications you published to others about the private things you like to have done to you in bed? Stop and think what they might be worth to business competitors, ex-lovers, or to litigants in a contested divorce case?

Does blackmail and extortion come to mind?

It could. It should.

Who are the operators of these companies? Do you know anything about them? Are they storing your shared communications in a massive database accessible to them - but not to you? Are they secretly sharing it with others?

There are no regulations limiting who owns any of these companies.

Scared? You should be.

Every time you go online, you are not telling just that potential lover what you are into; you are creating a reservoir of information for some private business entity to collect about some of your most secret predispositions.

When SFGN did a cover story on Grindr in November of 2012, they gushed about their international outreach, and paid tribute to the technology they have mastered. But could they now master you? How about when the police call and say they are doing an investigation? Are these companies cooperating instantly or protecting your privacy?

When a kid such as Ryan Uhre goes missing and there is information that his last known human contact was on Grindr, do they just immediately share that information with authorities? Through their press representative, they said they "always cooperate with authorities."

Oh, really? Is it at the expense of your rights, or in furtherance of a legitimate inquiry? Do they require subpoenas or just roll over, because that is simpler and cheaper?

What if you were sued by an ex-partner who, seeking to establish your infidelity, subpoenaed your Grindr account? Are these social apps saving and storing your communications? Grindr's PR department suddenly was not so responsive when we told them we were doing this type of article. Puffery they like, but sharing their own private parts they were not too happy about.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/03/your_penis_is_showing.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/03/your_penis_is_showing.phpLivingMon, 10 Mar 2014 15:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/03/your_penis_is_showing.php#commentsWhy Grindr Mattered in Ryan Uhre's Death
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]]>The body of Ryan Uhre (right), a gay grad student from FSU, was found last Tuesday morning on a rooftop near the campus. The worst fears are now a grim reality. A young man has been lost, and a promising life has been snuffed out.

Earlier this month, I editorialized that the refusal of close friends and his family to publicly discuss his sexuality may have compromised the efficiency of the investigation into his disappearance. You see, the last place Ryan was 'seen' was not just leaving a Super Bowl party at a sports bar in Tallahassee. The last place he was 'seen' was on Grindr an hour after he left that sports bar, chatting with friends.

Ryan went on Grindr often, and to their credit, some of his hookups contacted the Tallahassee Police Department on their own, sharing their liaisons with him. One young man from Key West met Ryan on Grindr during one of his trips to FSU. Like others, he provided information to the police that he hoped would be useful. "I pray for him," he had said.

Ryan was drinking at the Super Bowl party that night, and has apparently gone on a few binges before, disappearing for a few days at a time. Family and friends had hoped against hope this was just another episode, and that he would turn up okay. But as hours passed into days and weeks, with no sign or use of cash, his credit cards, or bank accounts, hope had turned to fear. If it was a binge, it was not going to be a good one.

In this loss, what I found troubling was the steadfast determination some friends had not to make Ryan's semi-closeted sexuality an issue in the search. It most certainly was.

SFGN did not seek to embarrass Ryan Uhre, his friends, or his family by demanding that the media release information about his personal life. We sought only to move them in a direction that might simultaneously help them find him sooner, while also potentially protecting gay men.

As the police knew, the venues for gay men in Tallahassee are significantly less varied than straight bars for frat boys. Of course, we wanted to make sure they were looking in the right places.

There is nothing shameful or embarrassing about an attractive young man finding a partner online and having a rendezvous, whether or not for sexual purposes. This is not only what gay men do, it is what straight men do also.

The Olympics begin in Russia as the LGBT community is silenced and suppressed in their country.

The United States has taken a stand by sending a delegation, which includes a host of openly gay representatives. Meanwhile, a host of gay community groups rightly condemn Vladimir Putin and the Russian Parliament for their laws and their lies. But there is another culprit too, the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/flame_shame_in_sochi.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/flame_shame_in_sochi.phpLivingFri, 31 Jan 2014 10:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/flame_shame_in_sochi.php#commentsPuff & Pass: Welcome to the Pot Party
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]]>The way Nancy Grace on the HLN network screams about your babysitter being on pot can make you think she is on crack. But the truth is she is not. She is in show business, knows a good topic, and can figure out how and when to run with it.

That usually does not happen to me, but I was a guest on her show -- in her court. But this is my issue. I live with facts. She highlights fiction.

Nancy Grace chose to defend an indefensible topic that she is eventually going to lose. Her position is such a laughingstock in today's America that Saturday Night Live did a spoof of her last weekend. Pot smokers have become like the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- we are everywhere. We have taken control.

Everyone who was in the closet about cannabis is coming out, from the President of the United States to the Democratic senator in Florida, former astronaut Bill Nelson.

America has turned the corner on the possession of marijuana. No one wants it to be a crime anymore. Welcome to the party. You can now come out of the closet.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/puff_pass_welcome_to_the_pot_party.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/puff_pass_welcome_to_the_pot_party.phpLivingFri, 24 Jan 2014 10:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/puff_pass_welcome_to_the_pot_party.php#commentsPot Smokers Finally See the Rainbow
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]]>When 64% of the voters in a Miami Beach straw ballot said they would support medical marijuana last month, it was no surprise. Pot smokers may not wear rainbow flags, but they have finally come out of the closet. Their colors are a bright green.

For forty years, since early in the 1970's, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has been fighting to change repressive and regressive laws against the responsible use of cannabis by consenting adults. Many new organizations are joining the fray. Welcome to the party.

It's not just time to light up though. We have a ways to go. In 30 states, pot is still illegal.

The truth is that the 'war on drugs' was never a war on drugs. It was a war on good and decent people, whose only crime was smoking a joint at the end of the day. It was a war on your friends, many of whom you know went to jail, lost their property, and were disgraced in the community. What bullshit that was, huh?

Most Americans have always known that the horror stories about pot consumption were delusional hallucinations thrown upon us by cowardly politicians who were afraid to be seen as 'soft on dope.' Today, though, cannabis consumers realize they can trust their own experiences more than the government's forked tongues.

The government that is still raiding medical dispensaries is holding onto the vestiges of a policy as sure to unravel as prohibition against alcohol once did. Cannabis consumers no longer want to be illegal bootleggers or rumrunners. We are first-class entrepreneurs, building small family-owned businesses, starting collectives, marketing vaporizers, lecturing about medical uses, and making America realize how right we have always been about pot.

Norm Kenthttp://www.bilerico.com/2013/12/pot_smokers_finally_see_the_rainbow.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2013/12/pot_smokers_finally_see_the_rainbow.phpLivingWed, 04 Dec 2013 15:00:00 -0500http://www.bilerico.com/2013/12/pot_smokers_finally_see_the_rainbow.php#commentsBullied LGBT Teens Still Need a 'Geography Club'
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]]>With so much national attention paid to teen bullying and the struggles of LGBT youth, the film Geography Club debuts on movie screens nationally at an appropriate time. It is a film that could have saved lives years ago, but it still pushes the envelope today, carrying a strong social message in a sincere cinematic package, creatively directed, sensitively written, and artistically produced.

As the adult LGBT community finds more and more of a place at the table in our larger community's social and political life, we forget how difficult it can still be for young adults all across America.

Let's face it; high school can be brutal, maybe even worse than a Miami Dolphins locker room. So a film about a star high-school quarterback coming to grips with his sexuality can score a touchdown. Yes, we have a long way, and the success of Glee on network TV is testimony to that.

When Equality Florida gave Broward County Schools its annual achievement award a few days ago, it acknowledged the progressive steps our community has taken to treat LGBT students equally and fairly. Years ago, there were no such schools, and no such awards. In many places, it is still so: there are no "geography clubs."

Classes ended at 2:45 pm, and the school buses were already lined up in a perimeter around the school to take us home. But the buzzer would not ring that day.

Instead, the principal's voice came over the P.A. system, broadcasting into every classroom at about 2:25 pm. The President of the United States had been assassinated, and we were all to proceed to our buses and homes at once. All afternoon activities at the school had been cancelled.

End of day school bus rides were typically giddy journeys, planning softball games on Branch Boulevard. Not that day. I still remember the ride home even today, a stunned silence gripping the students of all classes. None of us fully understood the depth and dimension of what happened. We were transfixed only by a surreal sadness.

Years later, we would learn from our teachers that the hurried rush home was in part due to the possible fear that the United States may have been under a Communist attack, and the president's murder was a foreboding of a war that might be next.

First of all, there was a pronouncement from the Boy Scouts of America that they were rethinking their policy of excluding openly gay scouts from their membership. That is no small victory, as the Supreme Court of the United States protected a decade ago their decision to do so. It does not matter yet that they delayed the vote. Civil rights victories emerge slowly over long periods of time. The needle has been pushed and can never again be turned back.

Second, on Sunday evening, in an interview with CBS News, just before the Super Bowl, the most watched television event in history, the President of the United States of America reasserted his commitment to equal rights for gays and lesbians by encouraging the Boy Scouts to follow through and change their past practices. From his historic Inaugural Address on the steps of the White House, to a fireside chat on national television, our President has demonstrated he will make gay rights for us a legitmate human rights concern for our nation and the world.

Third, playing on the Super Bowl champions, Brendon Ayanbadejo went on CNN to talk about the rights of gays and lesbians to freely marry without legal restriction. Let's not underplay the timing and sequence of events.

Ayanbadejo has become a national and straight spokesperson for same sex marriage. He was interviewed Monday on CNN by daytime talk host Don Lemon, an openly gay man. What we saw was two top tiered professionals calmly and intellectually exploring equal rights for all without a religious freak intervening and saying how we are all going to burn in hell. Thanks to the voices of people like Wayne Besen from 'Truth Wins Out' the voices of morons from the Westboro Baptist Church are largely being laughed at, scoffed, or ignored.

Fourth, proving they do more than hold Muscle Beach parties on South Beach, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force sponsored its 25th Annual National Conference on LGBT Equality on 'Creating Change' in Atlanta, Georgia. Thousands of activists from around the world appeared, and President Obama made a guest video appearance supporting their efforts, because in venues from Russia to Nigeria the struggle is far from over. But now is the time for our national rights organizations, from GLAAD to the HRC, to step up and honor not mainstreamers who lived in the closet, but our own activists who have paved the way for many others. Let's celebrate the Mark Segals from the Philadelphia Gay News who have fought our battle for a generation before we coronate Perez Wilson for his gossip columns.

The mainstream view is to now decriminalize marijuana entirely, or allow for its distribution to adults legally. In fact, more than 70 percent of Americans support, at the very least, legalizing medical marijuana. Last year, citizens both in Colorado and the state of Washington voted for legalization. It is amazing what can happen when you close the curtain in that voting booth. We are developing a national recognition the 'drug war' has been a failure.

For decades, politicians running on 'law and order' campaigns were afraid to speak out about unjust drug laws, for fear of being perceived as 'soft on crime.' Consequently, they supported sending people to the joint for smoking joints. Florida is one of the more archaic states. Just a little more than a half an ounce of marijuana is still a felony, which can cost you not just your freedom, but expose you to losing a job, college scholarships and having your car forfeited. That is ludicrous.

In Florida this year, though, medical marijuana initiatives will be presented to the state legislature for consideration. Last week, in the Sun Sentinel, even conservative columnist Kingsley Guy suggested our nation's drug laws be reconsidered. Leonard Pitts did so last year in the Herald. Encouraging and responsible voices for decriminalization are emerging everywhere. Across the nation, legislators or citizens in over 18 states have now voted for decriminalization or medical use. The wave has arrived. Let's all ride it.